Hey there, Ace in the Holers. Hope you survived your visit from the Big Man up north. I didn’t get a photo of Sloan on Santa’s lap this year, and I am in a deep, deep depression because of it. If you don’t remember our awesome three years of Santa pictures with Sloan, you can visit them right here.

It has been a long time now since I’ve posted…long enough that Jen, who was still pregnant in the last post, has birthed a boy and he is now a senior in high school. You can forget about sending baby blankets. Just send him a box of rubbers.

What has been happening since I was last here? Oh lordy lordy…so much. Where do I start?

First of all, I feel like I’ve visited just about every doctor there is to see in Salt Lake City. This has nothing to do with fibromyalgia; it has everything to do with these naughty little paws of mine who decided to start freaking out last summer and have escalated into VERY VERY bad behavior like being numb all the time and keeping me up during the wee hours of the night. After a bunch of nerve testing, and one cancelled cervical disk replacement surgery (thank you god), we have found that my mitts have a bad case of carpal tunnel syndrome. They are freaking out right now as I type this post.

I run around all day and also sleep in a pair of really hot arm braces. I look wicked tough.

**Note: this is now four weeks later that I’m finishing this post.

My hands are not freaking out anymore, because I had surgery two weeks ago.

YAY FOR SURGERY!!**

I had surgery on both wrists on December 10th, with the lovely bearded doctor man named Dr. Cutyourwristligament. He did a great job. I’m finally turning a corner with my healing and don’t feel like I’m going to burst into tears at least twice a day.

We planned a trip way back in August to spend part of the holidays with Brad’s family in Costa Rica. I made all the arrangements for us, and the tickets were non-refundable, so I had that surgery and got my ass on a plane six days later to take our favorite rednecks out of the country. I promise a whole post is coming on the Costa Rica trip. Later.

Speaking of posts, I’m getting my groove back. I miss writing so much, and I miss the people that were reading my blog on a regular basis. I kind of limped along this summer while my mom was going through her cancer treatments and when my sister had her spine tumor removed, then fall and school and body breakdowns came along and I just sputtered to a stop. I’m ready to write again, I’m ready to over-share with you, and I’m ready to make you laugh again. Believe me, I need some laughs.

So, to wrap up today, I’m going to wish you a merry Christmas, and happy Kwaanza and all that, and also post my Christmas cards for you since I only mailed out about half of them before we flew to Costa Rica. These pictures were taken about a month ago by my friend Jax, and I swear – WHAT COULD BE BETTER FOR MY CHRISTMAS CARDS THAN ALL THE CRAZY COMMENTS BY THE DUCK DYNASTY DUDE?? I didn’t hear about the frenzy until we returned home, and it was so perfect that Phil Robertson said a bunch of dipshit things while we were gone!! Because if that had not happened, my sister would have had no idea who we were referring to in our cards.